


Reiko's Book of Friends

by talibusorabat (hermitcave)



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-30
Updated: 2011-11-30
Packaged: 2017-10-26 17:38:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/286076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hermitcave/pseuds/talibusorabat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natsume has seen so many memories of his grandmother's pain. As he returns another youkai's name, he witnesses her first steps to healing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reiko's Book of Friends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [foxinthestars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxinthestars/gifts).



It began, asit always did, with a tapping on his window. Natsume wondered why the youkai needed food and drink but never seemed to need sleep as he painfully pushed himself out of his warm futon and opened his window for -

“A bird?” He wondered if he had made a mistake, and it wasn’t a youkai at all, until it chirped.

“Natsume-dono, I would like you to return my name.” It had a very dignified voice for a songbird, though that dignity flew out the window when it caught sight of Nyanko-sensei. The cat demon cracked open one lazy eye and the little bird youkai squawked and immediately hid in Natsume’s hair, its talons digging into his scalp.

“A CAT! A CAT!”

“AH, LET GO!”

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A CAT? I AM A GREAT AND NOBLE CREATURE!”

“IT’S GOING TO EAT ME!”

“IT HURTS!”

 _THWACK!_

  


Nyanko-sensei curled up in the corner, sulking. “I don’t know why you had to hit _me_. I wasn’t the one attacking you!”

The little bird bowed deeply to Natsume. “I apologize, Natsume-dono. My instincts got the better of me.”

Natsume resisted the urge to touch his throbbing scalp. “It’s all right,” he assured the little youkai.

The creature looked up at him with earnest, beady eyes. “Natsume-dono, please return my name.”

“Of course.” The teenager shot a look at Nyanko-sensei as he went to retrieve the book, waiting for the cat demon’s usual outraged cry, but the creature just huffed irrititably.

“Hmph. Like I have any use for a cowardly little songbird.”

Natsume smiled a little and settled down on the floor, the Book of Friends in front of him.

“That which protects me, reveal thy name,” he chanted, and ripped out the resulting page. “Nakigoe, I return your name to you.”

A breath carried the spell to the little songbird, and a breeze carried memories of his grandmother.

  


 _“Why should_ I _have to go to therapy?” Nakigoe was drawn to the human’s voice, despite the anger that told him instinctively to hide.His fellow songbirds always said he had more curiosity than sense. “I’m not the one with the problem!_ They _are!”_

 _“Reiko-chan, you’re not well!”_

 _“I’m perfectly fine!”_

 _“Seeing such things…it’s not normal!”_

 _“So that makes me sick?”_

 _“Reiko!” The human male’s voice was loud, and Nakigoe flew a few branches up before he remembered he had no reason to be afraid. “You are seeing Dr. Saito and that is_ final _. We leave in an hour.”_

 _Something slammed, and Nakigoe watched a human female storm out of the house. Her hair was the most entrancing shade of gold, so unusual. He fluttered closer, wondering if he could steal a few strands._

 _The sound of his wings drew her notice, and to his immense surprise, she looked straight at him and spoke._

 _“You. You’re a youkai, aren’t you?”_

 _Nakigoe had the sense not to speak, but the flash of intelligence in his eyes must have given him away._

 _“Would you like to play a game?” she asked. “If I win, you have to be my servant forever. If you win, you can eat me.”_

 _A smarter bird than Nakigoe would have flown away, but he chirped: “I don’t eat humans.”_

 _She shrugged, not caring. “I’ll be your slave for life, then.”_

 _Nakigoe was intrigued by the idea of having a human slave. Wouldn’t that surprise the more powerful youkai?_

 _“All right,” he said, and the moment he spoke, she whacked him on the head. “OUCH!”_

 _“I win,” she said._

 _“That’s not fair!” Nakigoe protested._

 _“A promise is a promise,” the human female said, and because this was true, Nakigoe wrote his name. “Now remember, you absolutely have to come when I call,” the human female - Reiko, she had been called - told him. He would have agreed, but the front door opened and instinct forced him to fly away. The human male grabbed Reiko’s arm and dragged her to the moving box._

 __  


_Nakigoe followed Reiko that day, and to every following session. Reiko never asked him to; she seemed to have forgotten about him, now that she had his name, but the little songbird was curious. What was therapy, and why did Reiko need it? Why did she let the humans push her around when she was so powerful and commanded such a large book of servants?_

 _Dr. Saito was a gangly, unkempt human of indeterminate gender. For the first session, with the human male, she had worn very traditional women’s clothing, but subsequent sessions had her in baggy, wrinkled outfits that never fit right and were always covered in some kind of paint. Nakigoe decided that she must have some kind of magic too, for she managed to smile even when she wasn’t smiling, and she never lost her temper. That first session, Reiko refused to speak, so Dr. Saito spent the whole hour explaining the different reasons people come to see a therapist, and how needing a neutral person to talk to didn’t mean that there was something wrong with them. “Sometimes we just need to talk to someone who doesn’t have an agenda for us, well-intentioned or not,” she told Reiko. “And sometimes we need to share things with someone whose regard for us won’t change. No matter what you tell me, Reiko-san, I will think well of you. Whoever you are, whatever is in your heart, you can share it with me. You are safe here.”_

 __  


_It was the third session that Reiko blurted: “Youkai are real. I can see them.” She said this as though to challenge Dr. Saito’s unconditional positive regard._

 _“How long have you been able to see them?” Dr. Saito asked, and Nakigoe wondered if she could see youkai too, for she didn’t seem surprised at all._

 _Reiko narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “My whole life,” she said, and pulled out her book of names. “These are the names of youkai I’ve defeated.”_

 _“Are you keeping score?” Dr. Saito asked._

 _“They’re my servants now,” Reiko said. “If I call their name, they have to come.”_

 _“Do you call their names?”_

 _Reiko shifted a little uncomfortably. “No.”_

 _“May I ask why? Your uncle mentioned that you’ve had altercations with other students. If you’re being attacked, why don’t you call on your youkai protectors?”_

 _It took Reiko awhile to answer. “I don’t want to force them,” she said, her voice unusually small._

 _“Why not? They’re your servants.”_

 _“It’s not right, making people do things they don’t want to do.”_

 _“I see.” Dr. Saito spent a moment paging through the book. “It seems to me that you’re not looking for servants, but for friends.”_

 __  


_Friends! What a strange idea. Reiko seemed to agree, for she said nothing more that session, and was oddly quiet for days after. She seemed to be in great thought about something, which Nakigoe wanted to know, though he didn’t dare approach her and asked. So he followed her even more, hoping that she would blurt it out at some point. He thought he was being sneaky - who noticed a songbird, after all, unless they were hungry? - But one day outside of school she whirled around and glared at him._

 _“Why are you following me? Are you trying to steal back your name?”_

 _“No!” Strangely enough, the thought had never occurred to Nakigoe._

 _“Then what do you want?”_

 _Nakigoe shifted shyly from foot to foot. Now that she had confronted him about it, it was embarrassing to admit. “You seemed troubled by something,” he said. “I wanted to know what it was.”_

 _Reiko looked stunned by this admission. “_ Why? _” she asked. “You’re a youkai.”_

 _Nakigoe ruffled his feathers, the bird equivalent of a shrug. “You’re interesting.”_

 _“I’m. Interesting to a youkai?” Reiko sounded very skeptical of this._

 _“Not many humans can see us,” Nakigoe said. “Even fewer of them want to be our friends.”_

 _“Who says I want to be your friend?” Reiko snapped. “I hate youkai!”_

 _“Then why do you spend so much time with us?” Nakigoe asked. “Why don’t you force us to do your bidding?”_

 _Reiko glowered at him.Gradually, her face softened into a pensive look. And then, for just a moment, she smiled._

 _“Oi!” The smile vanished and Nakigoe took to the highest tree branches as a young human male, Reiko’s age, jogged towards them. He stopped a few feet away from her and leaned forward, panting. “You dropped this,” he said, holding out the book of names._

 _“Ah!” Reiko cried, snatching the book and clutching it to her chest. As an afterthought, she added: “Thank you.” She assessed the young human critically, and Nakigoe wondered if she was trying to assess how much of a threat he was._

 _The young male straightened and smiled, appearing to be no threat at all. “Strange book you’ve got there,” he said, but where the other humans’ voices had been mocking, his was friendly, conversational. “Why do you have all those old names written down?”_

 _“You can read them?” Reiko asked, surprised._

 _He shrugged, grinning a little abashedly. “I like archaic scripts,” he said. “Ah! My name is Fujiwara Itoshi.” He bowed. “I’m new here.”_

 _“That explains why you’re talking to me,” Reiko said dryly, and turned around to leave._

 _“Eh?”_

 _“If you get too close to me, you’ll be cursed,” Reiko told him, a tinge of bitterness in her voice._

 _She seemed surprised when he said: “That’s stupid.” But she shook it off._

 _“Suit yourself,” she threw over her shoulder as she walked off._

 _Itoshi hurried after her. “So what’s that book?”_

 _Reiko looked up into the branches where Nakigoe hid. “It’s my book of friends.”_

 __  


Natsume felt a rush of warmth as the memory faded. “Who was that boy?” he asked the little songbird.

“Your grandfather,” Nakigoe said. He puffed up a little with pride. “I sang at their wedding.”

“Did she keep seeing Dr. Saito?”

“Until she moved away,” the bird answered. “Dr. Saito still lives nearby. I moved my nest to the tree by her office. She’s a kind woman. She always had a treat for me or my chicks.”

“I’m glad my grandmother found someone like that,” Natsume said softly.

Nakigoe gave him a knowing look. “I hope you find someone like that too.” He fluttered up to the windowsill and waited for Natsume to open the window. “Thank you again for returning my name, Natsume-dono.”

“Thank you, Nakigoe,” Natsume said. He stood by the window and watched the little bird youkai fly out into the night.

Nyanko-sensei yawned loudly. “I always wondered how someone as obnoxious as Reiko managed to have grandchildren,” he remarked.

So many of his grandmother’s memories were filled with loneliness and pain, even the warmer ones. It helped Natsume to feel like he wasn’t alone in his suffering, but still…

“I’m glad she found happiness,” he said.


End file.
